1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a work movement analysis method, a work movement analysis apparatus, and a work movement analysis program for analyzing a validity, skill level, and problem of a worker's movement in such a work process.
2. Description of the Related Art
At a job site where one or more workers perform a work such as a supply, process, assembly, and packaging of a part by manpower, it is necessary to optimize a work procedure, estimate a standard work time, and converge the work to the standard work time from a viewpoint of production control. In a non patent document “Work Study and Work Control” (Shoji Kawashima, first edition, p. 303 to 311, published by JAPAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION, Apr. 30, 1979), as a method of estimating a time required for a work is shown using a rating coefficient as a rating of a work speed and converting it to a normal speed. A worker is different in work speed depending on such a skill level, age, and gender thereof. For example, in the method, with respect to a worker inferior in skill and slow in work speed, a standard work time is obtained by multiplying an actual work time by a rating coefficient.
A method of optimizing a work procedure and simulating a standard work time, in which an actual work is recorded as video data and then analyzed, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H06-168246 and a non patent document “Computer Aided Construction Engineering System for Nuclear Power Plants” (corresponding to the Japanese Patent H06-168246) (Toshiaki Yoshinaga and other three persons, p. 27 to 38, No. 10, vol. 72, published by Hitachi Hyouron, Hitachi Hyouron Co., Oct., 1990). The video data is subdivided and grouped into smaller movement unit data, and a work speed is adjusted with respect to individual pieces of the grouped movement data, considering a work efficiency of individual workers; thereby, an image reproduction speed of a human movement is modified like a movement image of a standard worker. By appropriately combining these pieces of the movement data after adjustment based on a scenario of an optimized work procedure, it is possible to simulate by a moving picture a manner of a standard worker performing the specific work procedure.
By a production manager to an end worker sharing such a simulation result, it becomes possible to make them understand a work speed and a work procedure based on an optimized scenario and for the manager to train workers.
In the Japanese Patent H06-168246 and the non patent document “Computer Aided Construction Engineering System for Nuclear Power Plants,” because a work object is a plant before installation and the work is simulated based on information of a three-dimensional CAD (Computer Aided Design) of the plant, movement data of a worker is sampled at a certain time interval and made into an animation. On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H06-231137 is disclosed a technology in which a series of work videos is divided at a transition of a certain work in a real video. This provides an area for displaying a video image and an area for displaying a button for specifying a work kind, gives a name of the work kind by clicking the button by mouse, and divides the video. Although this technology uses video data of a video tape itself, it has become possible to easily divide and edit the video data as MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) on a personal computer without relying on the video tape thanks to a highly-developed computer, a large capacity of a hard disk, and a pervasion of an image compression technology in recent years.
In a case of reproducing a real video as a video tape or MPEG data, an operator analyzing a work has to face a movement ever-changing before her/his eyes, being different from the sampling in the case of the Japanese Patent H06-168246.
In the Japanese Patent H06-231137, watching a video image, selecting a work item name at a time T1, continuing reproducing the image, selecting the work item name by clicking the image one after another at a transition of the work, and defining a work image reproduced hereafter, the work image is divided. Accordingly, a time T required for a work of a certain work item name is obtained by T2-T1 if a next work item name is selected at a time T2.
However, although in the operation an analysis operator of a work has to input information for identifying the work with respect to a worker's movement inspected hereafter, it is necessary to partly rewind and inspect the movement in a case of the worker's movement being different, contrary to an expectation of the operator. In order to evade such a thing, it is necessary to once look through a video image, to have understood a worker's behavior, and then to start the analysis.